This invention relates to a distillation apparatus, and more particularly to improvements in an apparatus for the continuous automatic distillation of a volatile liquid such as water.
The purification of liquids by distillation is well known, and various types of equipment find widespread utilization in distillation operations. The requisite features of distillation apparatus generally include a boiling vessel, condensation means to cause the vapors created in the boiling vessel to return to the liquid state, and a receiver vessel to capture and confine the liquified product produced by the condensation means.
In distillation systems designed to handle a continuous feed stream of liquid to be purified, special control means are required to regulate the flow of liquid into the boiling vessel and to remove purified product from the receiver vessel and nondistillable residues from the boiling vessel. Such control means should be of simple and durable construction to enable the apparatus to function reliably for extended periods without maintenance.
Water distillation units of relatively small capacity designed for home or industrial use are generally required to be of compact size and amenable to easy installation and operation. Such units should preferably be further equipped with control means which facilitate intermittent operation. To reduce the cost of operation, particularly the cost of heating the water to volatilization, the distillation apparatus should be designed in a manner which affords efficient use and recovery of thermal energy.
Unlike complex fractionation systems capable of selectively condensing and isolating specific components of a volatile mixture, a distillation process merely separates volatile from non-volatile substances. If, for example, a water supply contains volatile impurities such as chlorine, chloramines and/or chlorinated organic species including chloroform known to be produced by chlorine, such species cannot be removed by ordinary distillation methods because they will co-distill and co-condense with the water. Although various techniques may be sequentially combined to purify water, practical single process means for the production of pure water from a feed stream containing volatile and nonvolatile impurities have not heretofore been available.
It is accordingly an object of the present invention to provide a compact, easily installed apparatus for the distillation of water continuously supplied to said apparatus.
It is another object of this invention to provide an apparatus of the aforementioned nature having the ability to remove from water substances more volatile than water.
It is a still further object to provide an apparatus of the aforementioned nature wherein the component functional parts of said apparatus are designed and arranged in a manner to efficiently utilize the thermal energy required to achieve distillation.
These and other objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following description.